Texas wants to expunge “pro-Islamic” textbooks from classrooms

The Texas Board of Education, an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one, continues to display its utter ignorance and xenophobia as it continues to try to edit out of their schoolbooks any elements they see as “pro-Islamic” and “anti-Christian”. If you’re wondering exactly what that means, don’t worry: it just implies anything involving a favorable mention of the accomplishments of Middle Orient cultures will be excluded from the curriculum — all in an effort to ensure their own narrow view of history is preserved. I think all of this is utterly pointless. It incorrectly assumes people in Texas are even bothering to read, which, judging by the low-test scores and general lack of intellectualism, is certainly not the case.

What I find hilarious about this travesty is how telling it is of religion in general, that believers would be so frightened of other cultures and ideologies they would do anything in their power to prevent their own progeny from actually benefiting from an education. If they are so self-assured of the primacy of their beliefs, why are they so frightened of other views? It doesn’t take long to realize the much-extolled confidence of world religions is merely a facade. They are obviously aware of how tenuous their grasp on their own followers are; they need only to look at the long list of defunct religions for inspiration and compare it to the knowledge and understanding we’ve gained in more fruitful intellectual pursuits.

Keep being the backwards, loser state that you are, Texas! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next…

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Comments (3)

Wendy

J.N. Hudson

This is pure idiocy. For starters it make this “black or white” assumption that something that is “pro-islamic” is by default also “anti-christian” and vice versa, and that is simply not true. What do they intend to do about history, the subject most effected by such a policy? Just skip over the past 1500 years of history for southern europe, eastern europe, the near and middle east, and north africa? Or are they going to try to “spin” or outright change history?

History, in and of itself has no inherent bias, it is simply a record of events and this policy seems to say that if the Texas SBOE, a group of elected individuals with agendas both religious and political, percieves a historical era or event as being either “pro-islamic” or “anti-christian” that they can either excise that era or event, or “massage” that facts as to present that era or event to present it in such a way that it is presented as pro-christisn and anti-islamic.

And what of current events and civics courses? This policy, with it’s seeming assumption that “pro-islamic” and “anti-christian” are one and the same, can only lead to teaching that islamic countries as a whole cannot be worked with, cannot be trusted, and must be assumed that they all seek the destruction of America because it is a christian country and therefore is inherently opposed to islam. The promblem with that is that not a single on of those statements is inherently true. It will also foster a belief, again since the policy assumes that “pro-islamic” and “anti-christian” are one and the same, that muslims living in the US are all there for nefarious purposes and therefore are not or should not be allowed equal status under the law or afforded a full range of rights enumerated in the constitution.

I may have blown the prospective outcome of such a policy out of proportion, but such policies often have a way of going to such extreme via being structured to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Moreover the outcome I have presented is in know way a worst case scenario, as anybody who lived during, or lived under JIm Crow can attest. But what I find most abhorrent about this type of idiotic, xenophobic, bigoted, pseudoexecptionalist bullshit is that it puts me into a position where, to defend and uphold the constitution I hold so dear, I am forced to defend a system belief that in so many ways fosters the very tyranny that I am opposing.